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FIA announces changes to World Endurance Championship schedule

The World Endurance Challenge has amended its schedule for 2014. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

The FIA has announced late date changes for its 2014 World Endurance Championship that affect United States and Brazil events.

The Brazilian fixture, meant to be the first race after the Le Mans 24 Hours, taking place in late August, has been moved to the end of the season. The change was made at the request of event promoter Emerson Fittipaldi for two reasons: First, Fittipaldi told the FIA WEC Commission that construction will be taking place at the Interlagos circuit during the summer months while the venue is upgraded ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix in early November.

Second, the World Cup will be held in Brazil in June and July, making effective promotion of an August event impossible. Consequently, the series finale will not be in Bahrain on Nov. 15, but two weeks later in Sao Paulo.

The summer break for the WEC teams after Le Mans will now extend to three months; the next race will be at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas. This races moves forward by one day and will now take place on Saturday, Sept. 20. The event will share the marquee with a round of the United SportsCar Championship, which will now run on Sunday. Last year, the WEC race on Sunday had a significantly smaller crowd than the ALMS round the day before.

The 2014 WEC will be launched by the FIA on Feb. 13 at a media event in Paris.